Episode 340: Mount Karon (3)
After tending to the injured men, Damian tied their limbs with ropes.
“Let us go! I said, let us go!”
“I’ll offer your entrails to him!”
“Kaaargh! Kraaagh!”
Despite their near-death experience at Damian’s hands, the men showed no signs of fear. If anything, they became even more frenzied.
Damian placed his hand on one man’s head, who shook it violently.
“What are you trying to do, you worthless scum?”
Using his power of lust, Damian delved into the man’s mind.
There, he found a familiar energy.
It was the same power of lust that Damian himself wielded.
This confirmed that the men had been brainwashed by Dorgo.
‘How on earth were they brainwashed?’
As far as Damian knew, the power of lust required direct contact to be effective.
This meant he had to face each person individually to use the power of brainwashing.
But it was unlikely that Dorgo would have bothered with such a tedious task on these rural peasants.
Moreover, there simply wasn’t enough time for that.
Absorbing the demon king into the four great demon lords, absorbing the demon lords himself, and then meeting each person to use the power of lust?
‘That’s absurd.’
Suddenly, a hypothesis formed in Damian’s mind.
He shook his head. Even though Dorgo was the demon lord of lust, such a feat seemed impossible.
“Kaaargh! Kraaagh!”
The man opened his mouth wide, as if to bite Damian’s hand.
Damian slapped the man across the face. The man fainted without even a scream.
“Honey!”
A woman behind them cried out in shock. Damian dusted off his hands and said, “He was about to bite me.”
“Well, that’s… true, but…!”
Damian grabbed the unconscious man’s head again.
Using the power of brainwashing, he released the man from his trance and brought him back to consciousness.
“Ugh… ugh…”
The man groaned as he came to his senses. Seeing his bound hands, he cried out in surprise.
“What is this? Why am I tied up?”
“Honey! Do you recognize me?”
“What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t I recognize you?”
His wife burst into tears and hugged him tightly. The man looked bewildered.
“I need to wake the others.”
Rolling up his sleeves, Damian turned to the other men, who bared their teeth and growled defiantly.
“Don’t you dare come near me!”
“How dare you erase his blessing! What are you doing?”
“You’ll face his divine wrath!”
“What nonsense.”
Damian knocked each man out with a swift blow.
In truth, he could have released them from their trance without knocking them out. But he couldn’t stand their praises of Dorgo, so he did it on purpose.
Damian grabbed each man’s head, releasing them from their brainwashing.
“Huh? Why am I here?”
“Dad! Are you back to your senses?”
“Oh, my head… Why does it hurt so much?”
“Ivan! You’re back to normal!”
The women embraced the bewildered men, overjoyed.
But not everyone was so fortunate.
“What… what are you saying… I killed my mother?”
”…Derek? Where’s my son? Where is he?”
By the time Damian arrived, many had already died.
The men who realized they had killed their own families looked on in shock.
Damian watched them with a heavy heart.
“Don’t say such ridiculous things! Why would I kill my own mother?”
“You bastards! You’re all lying to me, aren’t you? Aren’t you?”
Some couldn’t accept reality and began to lash out.
Unable to watch any longer, Damian stomped his foot on the ground.
A heavy sound reverberated, and everyone froze in place.
“Calm down, all of you.”
The men wore expressions of discontent, but none dared to shout at Damian.
“I have a question for you. Do you have any idea why your families changed like this?”
While it was clear Dorgo was the cause, the method of brainwashing was unknown. Finding out how it was done was crucial.
At Damian’s question, the villagers exchanged glances before speaking.
“Nothing happened.”
“Then did they change suddenly?”
The villagers all nodded. Damian’s expression grew more serious.
“Now that you mention it, I heard something strange in the city.”
A young man spoke up loudly. Damian turned his attention to him.
“Strange rumors?”
“Yes, they said the nobles had all changed and warned us not to go further into the kingdom.”
This village was on the outskirts of the Zelado Kingdom.
Going further into the kingdom would bring them closer to Mount Karon.
Yet the strange phenomena had spread from there to the village.
‘This is suspicious.’
After pondering for a while, Damian addressed the villagers.
“You must leave the village immediately.”
“What? Why would you say that…?”
“If you stay here, strange things will keep happening. You need to get as far away from the kingdom as possible.”
Damian opened a pocket dimension and pulled out a handful of gold coins.
“This should cover your expenses. Prepare for your journey. Hurry!”
At Damian’s command, the villagers scrambled to move.
Soon after, they accepted the gold coins and left the village.
Once the villagers had all departed, Valhard descended from the sky.
“Damian, I’ve returned.”
To avoid alarming the villagers, Damian had instructed Valhard to patrol the area instead of landing.
“Good work. Did you find anything?”
Valhard wore a peculiar expression as he replied.
“You should see for yourself.”
Valhard carried Damian toward the heart of the kingdom.
What Damian witnessed there left him speechless.
“Kill! Kill them all!”
“Leave no one alive!”
“This war is blessed by Lord Dorgo!”
A battle raged across the fields.
The problem was that there were no distinct sides.
Thousands of people swung their weapons indiscriminately, as if their goal was murder, not victory.
“Heh… heh heh! Sacrifices…! Offer sacrifices…! Lord Dorgo desires it…!”
Elsewhere, human sacrifices were taking place. The disturbing part was that it was happening at a branch of the Holy Order.
Priests and holy knights, once devout, were now praising Dorgo as they extracted people’s hearts.
The closer they got to the capital, the more extreme the people’s actions became.
“Ugh… ugh… Blood, we need blood…! There’s not enough blood for Lord Dorgo…!”
Upon reaching the royal palace, they saw the king swimming in a pond of blood, surrounded by decapitated bodies.
“I can’t watch this any longer.”
Even Valhard, a dragon, was appalled by the horrific scene.
But Damian remained relatively composed. He had witnessed such horrors before in his past life.
During the War of Destruction, lands ruled by dark sorcerers were rife with such atrocities.
“I was right.”
Damian looked up at the sky.
Though invisible to others, Damian could see it—the power of lust blanketing the sky.
The reason for the madness was simple. Dorgo had unleashed the power of lust on a massive scale.
“This is absurd.”
The Zelado Kingdom was far from Mount Karon.
To brainwash people from such a distance was unbelievable, even seeing it with his own eyes.
What was more terrifying was that Dorgo had lost most of his true form.
It was unimaginable how powerful he must have been in life.
“Damian, what will you do?”
Valhard’s question brought Damian back to his thoughts.
Damian had a way to release the people from their brainwashing. But there were too many to save.
With Dorgo to deal with, he couldn’t afford to spend time on them.
There was only one solution. To defeat Dorgo as quickly as possible.
Once Dorgo was gone, the power would dissipate, and the people would return to their senses.
“Let’s head to Mount Karon.”
At Damian’s command, Valhard flew toward Mount Karon. The landscape blurred past them.
“Valhard, let me ask you something.”
As they flew, Damian suddenly spoke to Valhard.
“Go ahead.”
“If someone were to brainwash you to kill me, what would happen to the Dragon’s Oath?”
The deeper they went, the stronger the power of lust became.
Even though Valhard was a dragon, there was no guarantee he could withstand the power of a demon lord.
“The Dragon’s Oath would not be broken.”
Valhard replied without hesitation. Damian pressed further.
“What if the brainwashing was strong enough to surpass the Oath?”
“I can’t say for sure, but… I would likely lose my life.”
“Really?”
“The Dragon’s Oath is absolute. I must uphold it, even at the cost of my life. But why do you ask?”
Damian smiled, satisfied with Valhard’s answer.
“Then there’s nothing to worry about. Let’s keep going.”
“But why did you ask?”
“Just keep your eyes ahead. We’re about to hit the mountain.”
Ignoring Valhard’s grumbling, Damian noticed dark clouds gathering in the sky.
This was no natural phenomenon. The speed at which the storm clouds formed was far too rapid for that.
The clouds gathered, round and dense like cotton candy. Soon, the surface of the clouds split open.
From the gap, an eye emerged. Unlike the clouds, it was vivid, almost alive.
A foreboding energy emanated from the eye, enough to make even Demian tense.
“Demian Haxen. You’ve really shown up. Lucky me.”
The words were curt and to the point.
Lambda.
One of the four great demon lords.
He had appeared out of nowhere.
“I’m going to kill you. That’s my mother’s command. And my own revenge.”
In the sky, magic circles began to form.
But the numbers were alarming. Not just one or two, but thousands, tens of thousands appeared.
“You, death.”
From the magic circles, red beams of light shot out.
The beams engulfed Demian and Valhard, obliterating the plains beneath them in an instant.